Through It All
by XxXwhiteXroseXxX
Summary: What happens when Kakashi's best friend suffers a potentially life-changing injury? KakashixOC back when he was 16 and an ANBU. rated T for possible future content
1. Chapter 1

don't own Naruto (TT~TT)  
I own Ana

Kakashi's POV~

I stared at my partner, Ana Sarutobi. She had bright red hair, a perfect body, and even rinnegan. We had been on the same Chunin team. Ever since day one, we had been close. I was always ahead of everyone, becoming a Chunin at six and a Jonin at 13. Ana was always right behind me. We both took the Jonin exam together, became ANBU together, and even went on most of our missions together. She was the person who persuaded me to stray from the ninja code.

If I had never met Ana, I would be alone. Living a life strictly by a code that tells you to show no emotion, have no attachments. But she came as a smack to the face. Her fiery, caring personality convinced me to come out of the shell I'd created. She was my best friend, and she always will be.

Ana and I ran through the forest, enemy ninja right behind us. We had just killed their boss, as part of our ANBU mission. Now we had to kill them all. It was fifty to two, and Ana's left leg was injured pretty badly. Not great odds, but we could manage. We always did when it was just us on a mission. We functioned better with just the two of us compared to a full team.

We stopped in a clearing, turning to face the flood of apposing ninja. Ana was perfectly still, observing the situation. I had my sharingan activated. They stopped as well, watching us. Ana reached her arms up slowly, as if to surrender. I turned my attention to her.

"What are you doing?" I whispered. "Go along with it, I'm sure you'll figure it out. Now be quiet," she whispered

She had her hands up in surrender. I put mine up, as well. What the heck is she doing, I thought. The enemy ninja came towards us, seemingly inch by inch. Ana remained motionless, so I did the same. I desperately wished I knew her plan. She's going to get us killed, I kept thinking. Then it hit me; I needed to trust her for any plan of hers to work. So I stopped worrying. She'd probably get us out of this alive.

The enemy were about fifty feet away when Ana jerked her hands down and began rapidly doing hand signs. She used Earth Release: Sticky Earth Drop. The gang of ninja were coated in mud. I didn't get her strategy at all until she used Sixteen Pillar Bind. The huge pillars shot out of the ground, enclosing our enemies. I tried to remember what the jutsu did; it was supposed to be like an oven. Which meant that she would need to use fire next.

But right when she started making her hand signs, she collapsed onto her knees. She screamed in pain, clutching her injured leg. I hadn't noticed until then that there had been poison on the weapon someone had used to make the injury. The wound was bleeding badly; her pants leg was soaked. Ana screamed again.

"Finish the jutsu, Kakashi," she said between hissing breaths.

I finished the jutsu, knowing that the enemies inside were dead. There was no way they could have survived that attack. I turned to Ana. She was lying on the ground, still clutching her leg. I picked her up and began running. The village close by had a hospital. I ran as fast as I could, trying to comfort Ana as I did.

I remembered one of the rules of the ninja code: 'a shinobi must always put the mission first'. Normally, I would have stuck to this as if my life depended on it. But I had to help Ana. Even if we still had to kill the gang, I would have taken her to a hospital instead. I just couldn't leave her to die.

The doctors took her immediately when we got there. I had taken and hidden our ANBU masks and arm plates. She looked like your regular ninja to them. I paced the hall outside of the room she was in. Then I started to think; why was Ana any different from any other shinobi? I should have followed the code, and left her there, right? But I couldn't. Why?

Maybe it's because she's only fifteen, I thought. Or because she's my friend, perhaps. I started thinking about her smile, and all of our missions and adventures together. She couldn't die on me now! I didn't know what I'd do if she died. I loved her too much...  
Wait, I thought. Did I just say I loved her? It must've been a mistake on my part. Ana was my closest friend, the most amazing person I've ever met...That's how I realized it. That one little subconscious thought opened my eyes; I loved her. I was in love with Ana.

The doctor came out, his face serious. His eyes looked sad. That scared me. What the heck was going on? Was Ana ok?

"Your friend in there is fine; she's going to live," the doctor said, taking off his glasses. There had to be a catch to that...  
"What's wrong?"  
"She most likely will never be able to use that leg again."  
"...What?"

I just stared at him for a minute. She wouldn't be able to use her leg. What the heck? Wasn't he a freaking doctor? Couldn't he do something? I clenched my fists, trying hard not to slug the guy right there. He sighed, as if he knew everything. Well obviously he didn't, considering that he...I stopped myself there. I was being childish; just because he was a doctor did not mean he knew everything. I sighed.

"I'm dreadfully sorry. We tried everything we could. There is the slimmest possibility that she will walk again, though," he said.  
"Then I guess we'll just have to hope for the best," I sighed.

When I finally got to see her, Ana was staring at the ceiling. That was the first time in my life that I had seen her look scared. Not once on our ANBU missions, or any other mission, had she looked close to scared. Now, her expression resembled that of a child that was scared of the dark locked in a dark closet. It nearly killed me inside.

"Ana-chan?" I said, walking over to her. She looked over at me and smiled. Her eyes looked pain-filled, and yet she smiled for me. That shot a kunai through my heart.  
"Hi Kakashi-kun. I'll be fine, ok? Don't worry about it," her voice was soft; I knew she was just trying to hide pain.  
"Try telling yourself that. You look...so scared..." I said. She sighed, looking back up at the cieling.  
"Guess we can't be a team anymore, huh?"  
"Now don't go negative on me now, Ana. You've made it through tons of lethal things before with a smile! You can't give up now,"

She looked back at me, almost surprized. There was a light in her eye; she knew I was right. She smiled her devious smile, and sat up. Ana grabbed my hand, and pulled me close to her.

"Just so you know," she whispered in my ear. "You're goin' to help me through this. No matter what, ok?"  
"Ok," I said, smiling. Even with my mask she could tell I was smiling.  
"And if I walk again, I get to see your face. Understood?"  
"Alright. And if you don't walk again, I get to take care of you. Understood?"

She laughed. I just knew she would make it. Ana wasn't the type of person to submit to any odds against her. She'd walk again just to prove how tough she was. Ana had a dream to be one of the best kunoichi to ever come from Konoha. If I knew her, nothing would be able to stop her from achieving this except herself.

Something in my gut told me that she would be the first person outside of my family to see my face.


	2. Chapter 2

A week after Ana was told she might not ever walk again, the Third Hokage himself came to get her, along with Asuma. They were her adopted family, after all. Together, we got Ana back to Konoha. She wasn't very happy about having to have help, but she delt with it (probably just for us).

While she was in the Konoha hospital, I visited her every day. The Third even gave me a break on my missions so I could do this. He knew how close we were. And to this day I could swear he knew that I loved her almost as much as he did. Every day, I tried to help her walk a little. And, unfortunately, every trial ended up not working. No matter what the doctors tried, she still couldn't use that leg.

"Come on, Ana. You should get some rest," I told her. That was at least the thirtieth time I had said it, too. She was so stubborn.  
"I want to try to move my leg. I won't stop until I do!" Ana said. She was determined to use her leg again. As I said, she wouldn't let anything stop her.  
"It's been two hours, Ana. Time to stop,"  
"Oh, fine. But I get an extra hour tomorrow. I know I was close to moving it..." She sighed. I smiled; her determination was amazing. I would have given up by now.

I helped her to get her legs back onto the bed, and pulled the blanket over her. She yawned; I knew she was tired. I smiled at her, pushing strands of red hair out of her face. She smiled, ruffling my hair and giggling a bit. Then she sighed, and stared at the cieling. I just watched her for a minute.

"I know I can get through this. I just know it," she said quietly. I sighed, smiling. "I know you can, too," I said.  
"But you have to help me. You swear you will? Cross your heart," "I swear," I said, making an X over my heart. She smiled.  
"Thanks a ton, Kakashi-kun!" She said, smiling. I nodded, smiling back, and tucked her in.  
"No problem. Now get some sleep. I have a feeling that tomorrow's going to be a big day," I said, yawning at the end.

She nodded, and closed her eyes. When I left the room, Asuma was sitting in a chair outside the door. He had his elbows on his knees, and his face in his hands. I tapped him on the shoulders. Surely he had news; if he did, I could tell it would be bad. But I had to know.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He sighed, dropping his hands.  
"None of the doctors think she'll ever use her leg again," Asuma said. He sounded tired; sad, angry, and tired. "I don't care what the doctors say. Ana says she's going to use her leg again, and I believe her."  
"She doesn't know everything, you know."  
"She knows what's going on in her own body. She said she could feel it that she was close to moving her leg again."  
"I just don't know anymore, Kakashi," he said, close to tears. "Even my dad's starting to lose hope."  
"Well, I'm not. She'll pull through. Ana always finds a way to pull through."

He just sighed, leaning on his hands again. I walked away, not wanting to hear him talk about losing hope anymore. I knew Ana, and if you trusted her enough, she'd pull through. I just knew she'd be able to walk again. Why couldn't anyone else see that?

When I got home, I flopped onto the couch. I was exausted, having been awake since six. I had spent the entire day at the hospital, trying to encourage Ana. All of this was tough on me and her family. But what about her? It was her future at stake, surely she was more stressed than us, right? Wrong. She was taking it as a mission she had to complete, or a game she needed to win. I fell asleep trying to think of how she managed such thoughts.

The next day, I went to the hospital at 7:00AM. Ana was awake, but no one had helped her to where she could attempt to move. It was kind of weird, knowing that she was still laying there. Usually, she would already be working on moving her leg. Then I noticed everyone in the room. Asuma was sitting in a chair, looking anxious. The Third was sitting calmly, his eyes locked on Ana. Her doctor was sitting, as well.

"What's going on?" I asked, thoroughly confused.  
"She said she had a surprize for us," Asuma said.  
"Wait and see," Ana said happily. I knew then that everything would be fine.

Ana sat up on her own. She turned herself towards us on her own, as well. Dangling her feet off the edge of the bed, she sat there smiling at us. We were all in shock; yesterday she couldn't sit up on her own at all. Let alone turn herself. I smiled, standing to go hug her. Ana held up her hand to stop me.

"I'm not done yet," she said, smiling wider.

And what she did next was great reason to smile; she moved the upper part of her leg. 


	3. Chapter 3

For the next few weeks, doctors were hovering over Ana like flies. Now, I barely got the chance to see her. They were busy trying to figure out how she could still move her leg, and I was busy wondering when the next time I would see her was. One day, I got a call from the hospital saying that Ana wanted to see me.

When I went into her room, there were no doctors. Ana was just sitting there with a book, probably enjoying the peace and quiet. I smiled; it had been so long since I had seen her. She looked up from the book, hearing my footsteps. A smile spread across her face.

"It's been a while, Kakashi-kun!" Ana said. She sounded really excited to see someone that wasn't a doctor.  
"Yea, it has. What happened to the doctors?" I couldn't help but wonder why they had gone away suddenly.  
"I demanded that they give me a break, and threatened to have Dad shut down their research," she said, smiling deviously. "Well, how do you feel? Can you move your leg more?" "Oh, watch this!"

She motioned for me to move back. I watched her sit up, then scoot to the edge of the bed. Then, she stood up, keeping one hand on the bed for support. I smiled so much my face hurt. She was smiling just as much.

"Can you try to walk for me?" I said. She looked down, her smile leaving.  
"I don't think I can," She whispered. This came as a shock to me; Ana never thought she couldn't do something.  
"Please try, Ana-chan. I know you can do it," She shook her head, looking at me with a horribly sad expression.

So I decided to motivate her. I went to the door and locked it. Then, I pulled my mask down so she could see my face. Ana stared, her cheeks turning pink. I blushed, as well. I held out my arms.

"I dare you to walk over here," I said. Slowly, she put her good leg forward. Then, she moved her other leg forward. She was walking; Ana was walking! She took step after stiff step, and finally ended up right in front of me. I hugged her tightly, swingning us around in a circle. She was laughing and hugging me back. I was so happy then that I started crying.

"I did it, Kakashi! I walked!" Ana said joyfully. And, without realizing it, I kissed her.

This amazing, shocking feeling rushed over me quickly. It was like a huge wave of...of...I don't know what, washing over me. I closed my eyes, sinking into it. After a moment, I felt Ana's arms around my neck. I wrapped my arms around her waist, and pulled her closer. After a minute, we both pulled away.

"Did you feel that, too?" Ana said, blushing brightly. I smiled and nodded. Her face lit up, and a smile spread across her face.  
"I love you, Ana."  
"I love you, too, Kakashi. I have for a while now, actually."  
"Same here," I smiled. She hugged me.  
"Will you come with me to get Dad and Asuma, please?"

I nodded. After I pulled my mask back on, I opened the door. Together, we walked down the hall to the waiting room, holding hands. Asuma was asleep in one of the chairs, and the Third had his chin in his hands. When he saw us walking towards him, he almost jumped out of his seat. Asuma woke up when his father stood, and saw us, too. He practically flew out of his chair.

"Ana! You're walking!" Asuma cheered, running over to her.  
"I know! Kakashi helped me," Ana said, smiling at me. Asuma and the Third turned to me, both with questioning looks.  
"How did you do that?" Asuma said.  
"It's a secret," I said, holding my finger up to my mouth. "Need to know basis, huh Ana?" She nodded, laughing.

They let Ana out of the hospital the next day. She was still walking stiffly, but she was walking nonetheless. Ana walked out of the hospital with the biggest smile I had ever seen her have. Everyone was glad to have her out of the hospital after...well actually it had only been a month. But it had felt like forever.

Of course, before we sent her on any more missions, we would need to work on her walking. Ana knew that. She also knew that her father wanted desperately for her to go back to Jonin. And since she was moving down to Jonin, I had made up my mind to do the same. When he told Ana that he wanted her to move down, she actually accepted it; I had expected an arguement.

"I'm moving back to Jonin with her," I said. The Third nodded.  
"Thanks, Kakashi-kun," Ana said, hugging me. I nodded, smiling at her.

So after Ana could walk right again, we both became Jonin again. Everything seemed fine, at first. That is, until I remembered that being a Jonin means you could get stuck with a Genin team... 


End file.
